[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 129 (Tuesday, July 31, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5464-S5465]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          REPUBLICAN TAX BILL

  Mr. SCHUMER. Madam President, on another subject, taxes, President 
Trump and congressional Republicans promised working America the Moon 
and the stars with their tax bill. President Trump said that it would 
create ``a middle-class miracle'' and that everyone would get a $4,000 
raise. Remember that? President Trump promised the American people that 
these tax cuts for the wealthy would trickle down--or torrent down--and 
everyone would get a $4,000 raise. If we asked Americans from one end 
of the country to the other to tell us by raising their

[[Page S5465]]

hands how many of them got a $4,000 raise, maybe the top 1 percent 
would--maybe the top 2 percent--but not most Americans.
  Wages are virtually stagnant. The promises the President made have 
not materialized. And when we measure wages against costs of everyday 
living--in other words, buying power, how much of a raise you get 
versus how much things cost--the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 
year over year, hourly earnings have dropped by 1 percent. In other 
words, the American consumer--the average middle-class person, even 
with this tax cut--has less buying power today than they had last 
year. President Trump and Republicans promised a $4,000 raise, but 
average hourly earnings' buying power--the ability to live a decent 
life--for far too many Americans has gone down. Talk about a sleight of 
hand. Talk about an exaggerated--if not dishonest--promise. There it 
is.

  While average working Americans continue to struggle to keep their 
heads above water, corporations and the wealthy are having a bonanza 
thanks to the Republican tax bill. As the President himself tweeted 
this morning, the tax bill made the Koch brothers and almost every 
multimillionaire richer at a time when they are doing great. We don't 
begrudge that people are wealthy and doing well, but the middle class 
needed this tax break far more than the rich, even though the rich had 
political power over our Republican friends--and when the wealthiest 
lobbyists and big, powerful corporations say jump, our Republican 
friends say how high, ignoring the middle class. So in the Trump 
economy, big, wealthy corporations are cashing in, the top 1 percent 
are doing great, and American workers are falling behind.
  Listen to this. Already this year, corporations have dedicated over 
$600 billion--now approaching $700 billion--to corporate share buybacks 
and debt repurchasing programs, goosing their stock price but doing 
little to help workers. That is a record pace. These buybacks help the 
CEOs and wealthy shareholders but do nothing for the middle class.
  There is also a new, troubling pattern being brought to light of 
corporate executives selling off stocks shortly after the stock price 
has been inflated. So they do the buyback, then they sell the stock and 
cash in. Here is the pattern: The Republican tax bill gave American 
corporations a mammoth tax cut; American corporations use some of those 
newfound profits to buy back and inflate the value of their own stock; 
executives of those companies then turn around and sell the stock at a 
higher price to pad their pockets.
  SEC Commissioner Robert Jackson studied nearly 400 examples of stock 
buybacks since the beginning of 2017 and found that after half of 
them--half--at least one executive sold shares within the next month. 
That is American taxpayer money, President Trump. That is the money you 
are taking from the American people and giving to the wealthiest of the 
American people. The Republican tax bill is robbing the American 
Treasury to pad the pockets of wealthy executives and the richest 
Americans.
  Now, if that wasn't bad enough, listen to what they want to do now. 
It was reported in yesterday's newspaper, the administration is 
considering doing an end-run around Congress to give another $100 
billion tax cut mainly to the wealthy by cutting taxes on capital 
gains. The economy is already running hot on the artificial sweetener 
of tax cuts and deficit spending. Another $100 billion in tax cuts for 
the rich isn't just more gasoline on the fire; it is an incendiary 
device.
  At a time when the deficit is out of control, at a time when wages 
are flat, at a time when the wealthiest are doing better than ever, to 
give the top 1 percent another big advantage is outrageous. It shows 
the Republicans' true colors: tax cuts for corporations and the 
wealthy, empty promises for everyone else.

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